Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Got Grandparents? Four Places Where You Can Become A Citizen.

I awoke this morning to an excited email from a longtime friend who wrote,

“Guess who is going to be officially confirmed as a Polish citizen
next month? Yours truly! Now, it’s just matter of waiting to be assigned
the Polish version of a social security number and pick up the physical
passport.”

No doubt, if you’re part of the lucky bloodline club because your
grandparents happen to have been a certain nationality at birth, it’s
possible that their citizenship might pass on to you. This is, by far, the fastest, easiest, and most cost effective way to obtaining a second citizenship. Let’s pause for a moment, though, and explore why one would want second citizenship.

When you have all of your eggs in one basket, i.e. you live, work,
bank, invest, buy real estate, store your gold, structure your company,
operate your business, surf the web, etc. all within the same country of
your citizenship, you’re taking on a lot of ‘sovereign’ risk. If one thing goes wrong in that country, whether you end up on some
3-letter agency’s list, or you get sued because your neighbor’s stupid
kid fell in your swimming pool, suddenly all of those assets and
interests are at risk.

With the click of a mouse button, a single phone call, or the whisk
of a fountain pen, any judge or bureaucrat can shut you out. They can
put a lien on your home, freeze your bank account, confiscate your
personal property, shut you out of your email, shutter your business,
seize your gold, etc. This is the whole point of international diversification… what I call
‘planting multiple flags’. If you use the system against itself and
spread those assets and interests around the globe– banking in Hong
Kong, structuring a company in Nevis, basing an email account in Norway,
storing gold in Singapore, etc.

With this level of diversification, suddenly those assets no longer fall under the control of a single government.
The ultimate in this international diversification is obtaining
second citizenship; aside from being a fantastic insurance policy, it’s a
ticket to a whole new world of opportunity and freedom.

To give you an example, buried deep within Senate Bill 1813 are
provisions that would allow the US government to rescind the passports
of US citizens if they are deemed to be seriously delinquent in their
tax obligations. As tax matters are typically administrative issues, however, there
would be no court hearing to see if there has actually been any
wrongdoing, no judicial appeal. Just punishment.

Such provisions hardly seem appropriate in the Land of the Free, yet
the bill is a testament to how far the basic liberties of the American
people have been eroded over the years. In this capacity, a second passport would provide instant options.
For someone who has been wrongfully impugned, a second passport is like a
get out of jail free card. Moreover, it gives you the right to live and work in another country
(or perhaps several), increasing your options and potential new
experiences around the world. You’ll find that you can do business in
more places, travel more freely, and have greater comfort and security
in your life.

As I’m fond of saying, nobody ever hijacks an airplane and threatens
to kill all the Lithuanians. There are no evil men in caves plotting to
blow up buildings in Uruguay. There are no angry crowds in Karachi
protesting civilian casualties from Panama’s unmanned drone fleet. And perhaps most importantly, there are no banks or brokerages around
the world closing their doors to Slovenians simply because nobody wants
to do business with their government.

Now, there are a number of ways to obtain a second citizenship… but
again, the quickest and cheapest route is if you happen to be part of
the lucky bloodline club. Certain countries observe what’s called ‘jus sanguinis’, or right of
blood, which means that citizenship is determined by lineage rather than
place of birth. Some countries even extend the right of citizenship to
grandchildren of nationals… meaning that if you have a grandparent from
one of these countries, you could be entitled to citizenship as well.

Some of these countries are:

1) Poland. The rules for receiving Polish citizenship from a
grandparent are a bit convoluted, but if you have Polish ancestors in
your bloodline, it may be worth contacting a firm like CK Law Office (cklawoffice.eu) in Warsaw; they’ve helped a number of Sovereign Man readers obtain Polish passports.

2) Italy. Not quite as complicated as the Polish nationality law,
Italy also confers citizenship to descendants of certain Italian
nationals going back two generations. You can find out more at MyItalianCitizenship.com

3) Ireland. As we have discussed before, Ireland has perhaps the most
clear laws in conferring citizenship to descendants of Irish nationals.
You have to do the legwork in finding the right documents, check out www.AnClanGael.com for assistance.

4) Germany. It’s not exactly a cheery subject, but Germany confers
citizenship for children and grandchildren of former Germans who were
deprived of their citizenship status between January 30, 1933 and May 8,
1945 on racial, political, or ethnic grounds. You can read more about
it here.

5) India. While not quite full citizenship, individuals with Indian
ancestors as far as three generations back (great grandparents) can
apply for a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) Card. A PIO Card
entitles the holder to live, work, attend school, own property, etc. on
parity with an Indian citizen. The only restrictions are voting or
holding public office.

About Me

I am an investment analyst, portfolio manager, and CFA Chartholder that has worked on both the buy side and sell side in various roles including analyst, portfolio manager, and trader. I have over ten years of experience in the investment industry and characterize my investment style as having a leaning towards value. This blog will track my (and potentially guest author) opinions, managed portfolios, and investment ideas.